inspect possible purchase for me

[Hammer Gun]

I do not know if this is the right place to ask if not feel free to move it, I need someone that lives close to the Cabellas in West Chester Ohio it is just south of cinncy to look at a gun for me they do not have 3 day inspection any more, The gun is a 4E Ithaca Trap gun 12 ga I know the gun is an early Flues model just need someone to give me their thoughts on the piece, If no one is close I guess It will be like a pig in a polk buying it please do not drive far if not close thats alright I will be glad to compensate for this Thanks Gary

[Bill Murphy]

Gary, I would not buy a Flues 4E if I could find a Knickerbocker 4E or higher.

[Hammer Gun]

Tell me I do not know squat about Ithacas just thought the checkering was better on the early ones? educate me a little, Gary

[Mike Poindexter]

Decent Flues 4E's go for around 2K; decent Knicks (S/N greater than 400,000) go for mid 3K and up. The Knicks were generally thought to be a more robust mechanism, and Ithaca continued to produce them into the 1960's. Finding someone to work on an early Flues can be a chore, and parts are scarce. If you want a high volume shooter, definitely go with the Knick. Personally, I dont shoot trap enough to worry about it, and prefer the earlier engraving to the later. I bought a Flues 4E from Stan Hoover on this site a year ago and am very happy with it.

[Bill Murphy]

The Knicks have about five moving parts and none of them break. The Flues, don't know about the parts, but I would guess they are not easy to find if you break one.

[6pt-Sika]

Murphy I’m sure is quite correct . However when I have Ithaca questions I call Stan “The Man” Hoover !

[edgarspencer]

Gary, you're a trusting soul.

[Stan Hoover]

Gary,

I will say one thing, you're looking for a SBT Ithaca at the right time, it is a buyers market for sure.

I was looking for a 34" Knick for awhile, not beating all the bushes, but I found one last summer that had a half pistol grip which was bonus. I've never encountered a Knick before with a half pistol grip always full pistol grip with cap or the more rare straight grip.

Now of course there's another 34" Knick that surfaced, so far I've been able to talk myself out of it

Stan

[ArtS]

When i was in my 20's and 30's, I always wanted one. In my mind they were the most legendery competition gun in the history of sports, and competed for 60 or 70 years. I can remember in the 70's when modern SBT's started showing up, there were always a bunch of guys in their 60's and older at all the trap fields who were buying every one that became available, and the younger guys were glad to let them go cheap to finance their new guns. They dried up over a few years, and I suspect that there were a few guys who had some incredible stashes of them. I think that the families of those guys are moving a lot of them out over a short period and the prices are really reasonable.

The only one I owned until recently was a really nice looking Victory model that I picked up cheap in the early 80's. I shot it wonderfully, but only hit when the shell went off. The entire firing pin train was worn out, even though the rest of the gun looked perfect. The tip of the pin was worn short and flat, the spring was shot and the hole for the pin was worn too large due to the angled firing pin so that the pin would jam. I finally made a pin and a workable spring, but the only solution I could see for the hole was to bush it, and the angle made me give up on it.

When you have to pick...
I beg you to get a Knick.....
Not the sh#% on stick!

(Pardon my haiku.)

[J. A. EARLY]

Gary,

Cabelas used to have a policy that they would ship the gun to another Cabelas near you for $25 or $50, which I can't remember. I imagine they still do. Then you can look at it there before anyone else with no obligation to buy.